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nursery business
for group work, brainstorming and idea
sharing, and the trainers have a wealth of
knowledge to share. I stress to my
practitioners that their attendance on the
course isn’t complete until they have
shared their learning with the rest of the
team, either at our training sessions or staff
meetings. Recently a training session on
British Values led us to introduce a
‘democratic’ voting system for favourite
preschool snacks, which we’ve copied
across our settings. External trainers and
consultants running courses advertise on
local council children’s services websites
and on professional body websites (e.g.
neytco.co.uk), and are well worth attending.
Children’s services meetings can also
be a good source of ideas. My managers
attend ‘transition’ meetings, held with
Reception teachers, to develop a smooth
transition from preschool to school, and
have picked up plenty of ideas. It is worth
asking your children’s services
department for information about the
meetings you can attend.
VISITING HOURS
I have found it very useful to attend
early years conferences and
seminars. I’ve learned a great deal
from the speakers, from visiting
the trade stalls and also from the
other professionals I’ve met
there. At a recent conference in
London I chatted with the person
next to me whilst we waited for a
speaker to start and within five
minutes we had swapped some really
useful ideas on how to meet the
communication needs of multilingual
children! The events are advertised in
professional magazines, most are free and
are well worth attending.
Meeting other owner/managers at
conferences has also given me the
confidence to visit other settings. It may
feel uncomfortable visiting other nurseries
on your ‘patch’, but very often settings
outside the immediate area are happy to
accept visitors. Organisations such as
Neytco publish a list of those happy to
take visits, and some settings host
networking meetings. I’ve picked up some
very good ideas from these meetings and,
as importantly, it has been very reassuring
to discover that others are having the
same issues and difficulties that I am.
LOOK ONLINE
It’s worth remembering that you don’t
always have to physically travel to share
ideas and good practice. The internet is full
of informative blogs and I’ve found it well
worth following key Twitter hashtags such
as #EYTalking, #childcare or #earlyyears. I
would also strongly advise joining any
Facebook groups in your area that are set
up to support early years practitioners.
Finally, and very importantly, it’s very
useful to engage with professional bodies
and benefit from the support and advice
they offer. A good example is National Day
Nurseries Association (NDNA) and
specifically the local networking groups they
have set up with the aim of bringing
together owners/mangers to give them the
opportunity to share experiences and
discuss concerns around business growth,
development and sustainability. The South
West and Swindon NDNA area networking
meeting is an excellent forum for this; it’s
positive, supportive and based around a
central idea of information sharing.
Looking externally for support is
refreshing and reassuring. It’s a source of
excellent ideas and will help you realise
that you’re not the only person
experiencing issues and concerns. It’s well
worth doing – the help is there.
If you want to improve your team’s practice, there’s
no sense going it alone – there’s a wealth of support
available from the sector, says
Fiona Webb
...
Sharing
knowledge
Fiona Webb is an
EYP and Managing
Director of Sunny Days
Children’s Nursery.
haring good practice is
essential if early years
settings are to maximise
outcomes for the children in
their care. Most nursery
groups will routinely share ideas and best
practice internally between their settings,
and at Sunny Days we do this on a daily
basis. However, it’s often through networking
with professionals from other settings that
the biggest improvements are made.
EXTERNAL TRAINING
There are many different opportunities to
network and share good practice. At Sunny
Days we encourage all our practitioners to
attend external training courses of their
choice. These courses offer the opportunity
S
It’s often through networking
with other settings that the
biggest improvements are made.
